Heelwedge, grass nail, snead and doirnins;
Handles on a scythe,
The farmer leaning oatwards
Mows from side to side.
Three lifts or four the sheaf full,
In shorter stubble five,
Three on three the stocks stood
When the binder ties.
The reared them, then they doubled,
When the ears had dried
Two sheaves inverted headed
Like Peter crucified.
The handstacks were collected
As round and round they plied,
The sedgegrass left for thatching
The grass rope, twisted, tied.
The generations garnered
Unchanging down the years
With hymns of Harvest Reaping
And psalms of gleaning ears.
An Aramean wandered
Across a Bible leaf
And Ruth of home was sighing
Her tears dried on the sheaf.
The reaper on the skyline
Stone against the scythe
Blending in the strawlight
With ancestors who died.